


Homeward Bound

by tornadox



Category: Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-13
Updated: 2012-05-13
Packaged: 2017-11-05 01:50:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/401147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tornadox/pseuds/tornadox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony is having a bad day, and JARVIS's music selection is not helping.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Homeward Bound

“I am a rock. I am an island.”

“No. I am Iron Man,” Tony yelled while entering his workshop.

“Yes you are, sir,” replied JARVIS.

“No. That’s not what I meant and you know it. Turn off that awful folk crap and put on ‘ _I Am Iron Man_ ’ now.”

“I am afraid I cannot do that, sir.”

“Stop channeling HAL and put on some good music. I am having a bad day.”

JARVIS did not reply; the offending song continued.

Traitor.

_And a rock feels no pain_  
 _And an island never cries_

Tony was having a bad day. Really a bad week. He foresaw thirty-four more bad days until the cast could come off. He was on the Avengers' disabled list. Stupid fucking cast.

If he had broken his elbow while taking out Doombots or repulsing Loki, Tony could have borne the humiliation. Even falling down a set of stairs while drunk (not that he was drinking much these days) would have been preferable. But no. He fell and landed on his arm. There was no grease spot, no banana peel, no crack in the cement, no dancing gone wild, no magic trick. He had simply slipped on the fucking flat floor of his garage.

Outside of the Avengers, the official story was an indoor climbing accident. At least the slip hadn’t happened on a public sidewalk where tourists and stalkers and paparazzi would have recorded his blunder for the ages. It was bad enough keeping the footage away from Barton. He let the group watch the video once, and only once. Clint, of course, had his cell phone out to capture it. When he tried to upload it to the net, though, it miraculously disappeared. Thank you, JARVIS.

Traitor.

Another Simon and Garfunkel came through the speakers.

_I’m sittin’ in the railway station_  
 _Got a ticket for my destination_  
 _Hmmm hmmm_

“I’m going to be sick. This folk crap has got to stop. Who takes a fucking train anywhere any more? I can fly through the fucking sky.”

JARVIS did not reply.

“Who put you up to this? Wait — is Bruce playing this in his lab? Is he waiting to video chat with me? I thought they’d all be in debriefings right now.”

Again, JARVIS did not reply.

“Did Clint bribe you? Is this his payback for the missing video?”

Yet again, JARVIS did not reply.

“Fine, sulk if you want.”

“Sir, I believe that you are sulking enough for you, me, and entire city of Malibu.”

Traitor.

_And every stranger’s face I see_  
 _Reminds me that I long to be_

After the accident, the first time that Captain America had called the Avengers to assemble, Tony lost it. He had been tinkering with the Iron Man suit, trying to make it accommodate his left arm in a cast and sling. The team left without out him. In fact, Cap had locked him in his workshop under the theory that Tony would show up at the emergency sans suit. Which Tony totally planned on doing; he wanted to try out a new repulsor gun he had designed the night before. He even stole one of Barton’s unused SHIELD uniforms for a disguise.

He still cannot believe that JARVIS chose Cap’s orders over his creator’s. Goddamn it, he needed to re-program that AI to always put Tony first. Okay, JARVIS technically was putting Tony’s wellbeing first. But he didn’t like it.

Instead, Tony got rip-roaring drunk. If he couldn’t join the party outside, he’d make one for himself inside.

That didn’t end well.

_Homeward bound_  
 _I wish I was_

It had been Pepper’s idea for Tony to temporarily move back to Malibu while he was healing. It would put him far away from temptation, although Tony argued that supercrime happened on the West Coast too. Manhattan really didn’t have the monopoly on costumed weirdos with delusions of grandeur and domination.

Coulson and Fury and the rest of those traitorous Avengers agreed with her. Cap especially didn’t want Tony to put himself in danger. Fucking Boy Scout. SHIELD Medical even gave him the latest treatments to speed up the healing process. Usually, this type of break required at least 10 weeks of recovery. Stupid fucking floor. Stupid fucking feet.

Traitors, the lot of them.

_But all my words come back to me_  
 _In shades of mediocrity_

Tony had spent the day in meetings at Stark Industries. Bored, so bored. While the corporate officers spoke of profits and mergers and crap that he paid good money for other people to care about, he was working on a serum to make his arm heal even faster. What was the point of having a genius engineer (him), the world’s best most kick-ass biochemist (Bruce) and the only Super Soldier in existence (Cap) on a team if they couldn’t replicate Dr. Erskine’s work? Really, before the fucking flat floor, he hadn’t been interested in that all. Not one bit. That kind of research had been his father’s bailiwick. As much as Tony enjoyed gloating over his father’s (few) failures, and wanted to beat Howard at something, he was afraid.

People had spent decades, their lives, trying to reproduce that serum, and somehow Tony expected to do it with a broken arm. What if the triumvirate couldn’t crack the code that Howard, Reed Richards, SHIELD, HYDRA, several governments, and even more crackpot scientists who instead turned into monsters?

(Bruce didn’t count. He wasn’t a monster, neither was The Other Guy.)

He needed to talk to Bruce, but he couldn’t find the video feed. So much for that theory. Who the fuck put on these horrible sappy songs?

_Like emptiness in harmony_  
 _I need someone to comfort me_

Tony missed them, the chaotic camaraderie of the Avengers’ movie nights.

_Homeward bound_  
 _I wish I was_  
 _Homeward bound_

During the fifth boring meeting of the day, his StarkPhone pinged. The Avengers had been called into action yet again without him. Some jackass supervillain-wannabe was trying to rob a blood bank. The news channels didn’t know why, didn’t care, they just kept showing teh same footage of Captain America getting thrown into a nearby storefront. The video never showed him getting up. Tony needed to know what happened.

No one answered his texts. He started hacking cell phone networks to find amateur video footage of the rest of the fight. But SHIELD had gotten there first, the bastards. They should block out the media, but not one of their own.

When he finally got through to Coulson on the phone, the agent said that everyone was fine, don’t worry his pretty scruffy head, or he would fly out to Malibu just to tase him. Again. Tony offered him the company jet. Coulson replied that he preferred the Helicarrier.

Traitor.

_Home, where my thought’s escaping_

Tony needed a drink. He headed upstairs to the kitchen.

_Home, where my music’s playing_

“That is not my music playing, JARVIS.”

Once more with feeling, there was no reply.

Traitor.

_Home, where my love lies waiting_

Steve.

_Silently for me_

Steve was there, asleep, his head resting on his arm on the table.

_Silently for me_

His right leg was in a cast. Someone had painted it with stars and stripes.

_Silently for me_

Tony walked over and gently kissed Steve on the forehead. The blonde opened his eyes slowly, a smile spreading across his face. Tony just wanted to hold him forever and bask in his warmth.

“What happened to you?” Tony whispered.

“I broke my leg. Now I’m on the disabled list with you.” Steve sat up and stretched out his leg.

“Yeah, but your breaks heal up within a day, you super soldier jerk.” Tony kissed Steve.

“I missed you too.” Steve kissed Tony.

Maybe it wasn’t such a bad day after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Songs by Simon and Garfunkel, lyrics by Paul Simon.
> 
> Wasn't sure whether to use the Steve/Tony relationship tag. I wanted the silently waiting lover to be a surprise.


End file.
